adsense analytic

Thursday, June 7, 2012

TN government unveils rural BPO policy to stem migration

With
a view to providing opportunities in rural areas and discouraging migration to
urban centres, the state government has rolled out an 'Enhanced Rural BPO
(business process outsourcing) Policy' with incentives for entrepreneurs and
companies setting up BPOs in villages.

The
new policy, promised by the AIADMK government in the 2011-2012 budget and
released on June 1, 2012, is a modification of the first one rolled out by the
DMK government in February 2010. As against a capital subsidy of Rs 3 lakh provided
in the first policy, the new one promises a capital subsidy of 20% on hardware
and equipment, subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh. However, training subsidy has
been halved to Rs 2.25 lakh from Rs 4.5 lakh.

Also,
in the new policy, there are additions like transport facility and exemption on
earnest money deposit in case the BPOs bid for government works. The reluctance
of BPOs to venture into rural Tamil Nadu has prompted the government to come
out with a separate policy for this sector. Most BPO operations are centered
around Chennai and Coimbatore and to some extent in Madurai and Trichy.

Former
Krishnagiri district collector Santhosh Babu should be credited with promoting
the rural BPOs concept in Tamil Nadu. During his tenure as collector, he promoted
the first rural BPO in the country at Sanasandiram near Hosur in August 2007 to
train and employ Naxal-affected youth who had studied at least up to Class 10.

Four
months later, another BPO was opened at Alapatti village in Krishnagiri. In due
course, more centres were opened at Uthangarai (where a Naxal shootout was
reported as late as 2002), Maganurpatti and Mittapalli, all in the same
district. However, once Babu moved out, these centres lost their sheen due to
disinterest of his successors.

Babu,
as MD of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, was again instrumental in
promoting GRG-SCOPE Rural BPO, an initiative by the GRG Trust of Coimbatore and
Scope International (whollyowned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank) at
Masinagudi in the Nilgiris district in December 2010.

The
centre employs 40 tribal girls who work on a platform developed by Scope
International for simplified data entry of forms. The centre is doing well,
said a Scope official.